Angels Blow an 8-4 Lead, Win, 9-8, in 16

First Dave Winfield kept the Angels in a game they had won for seven innings, nearly lost in the eighth and then were forced to work overtime to gain some semblence of control. His catch in the 14th inning kept the game under control.

Then he scored the winning run in the 16th inning on Dante Bichette’s topper to give the Angels a 9-8 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night in the longest game of the season for both teams.

Greg Minton was the winning pitcher after being activated from the disabled list earlier in the day.

Wags here say the Brewers’ emblem, which features a ball nestled safely in a glove, would be more accurate if it depicted a ball falling out of that glove.

The Brewers are the American League’s worst fielding team, and they showed how richly they deserve that distinction Friday when they committed six errors.

The errors gave Milwaukee 87 for the season. The Angels are second-worst at 76.

Aided by the six Milwaukee errors, the Angels scored more runs for pitcher Mark Langston Friday than they did in his last five starts. That was all to no avail because Langston, who had lost his last four decisions, was unable to protect leads of 5-2 and 8-4. In his last 10 starts since he was an 8-3 winner over Milwaukee on May 15, Langston is 1-6 with three no-decisions. Overall, the 29-year-old left-hander is 4-9.

Langston was charged with seven earned runs Friday in 7 2/3 innings, raising his earned-run average to 3.71. He walked five and struck out four for a total of 107 strikeouts in 119 innings. He leads the Angel staff in innings pitched.

The six errors--which included a hat trick on three routine plays by shortstop Kiki Diaz--tied a Brewers’ club record set on July 26, 1978, against the Angels. The muffs undermined the efforts of starter Dennis Powell and reliever Jaime Navarro and rendered seven of the Angels’ eight runs unearned.

The only untainted run resulted from Dave Winfield’s two-run home run in the sixth inning, Winfield’s 10th homer of the season. It followed an error by third baseman Gary Sheffield on a grounder by Johnny Ray.

The Angels took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on the springboard of second baseman Jim Gantner’s error on a grounder by leadoff hitter Brian Downing. Lance Parrish drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the first run, and Dante Bichette drove in two more with a single to left.

Milwaukee got two runs back in the bottom of the inning when Langston struggled with his control. He walked three, then yielded a two-run single to Greg Brock with two out, continuing his habit of allowing a high percentage of two-out runs.

Diaz’s first error, on a Dave Winfield grounder, allowed Downing to score for a 4-2 Angel lead after he had walked, moved to second on a single and to third on a grounder. The Angels added a run in the third inning when Bichette doubled and scored when Diaz threw away Jack Howell’s grounder for a two-base error.

The Brewers cut their deficit to 5-4 in the fifth. Singles by Diaz and Sheffield put runners on first and second, and Dave Parker--Milwaukee’s lone representative in Tuesday’s All-Star Game--drove them in with a double that rolled past the glove of center fielder Bichette. Winfield, the right fielder, recovered in time to throw back to the infield where a relay beat Parker to third base.

Winfield’s home run into the left-field seats gave the Angels a 7-4 lead, and they added a run in the seventh inning on singles by Howell and Schofield and an error by Sveum, who had replaced the hapless Diaz at short.

Milwaukee erased that lead by batting around in the eighth against Langston and Mark Eichhorn. All of their runs were scored with two out, and the tying run scored on Sheffield’s perfectly executed squeeze bunt.

The danger began when Rob Deer walked with one out. Brock doubled past Wally Joyner at first, sending Deer to third. The Angels turned Greg Vaughn’s fielder’s choice grounder into an out at home, although Deer didn’t appear to touch the plate and catcher Lance Parrish didn’t appear to tag him.

The inning continued when B.J. Surhoff lined a single past Langston’s head, scoring Brock and moving Vaughn to third. That was all for Langston, who threw 124 pitches.

Eichhorn struggled through the rest of the inning. Sveum singled to center, scoring Vaughn, and Jim Gantner singled to right, scoring Surhoff. Sheffield scored Sveum with the fourth run of the inning when he bunted toward third, a slow roller Jack Howell charged but couldn’t play in time to first. Robin Yount ended the inning by grounding into a force play.

The Angels loaded the bases in the ninth by working out three walks (one intentional) against Milwaukee reliever Dan Plesac, but the Brewers got out of that jam with a rare bit of fine fielding. The Brewers pitched carefully to Dick Schofield before walking him to get to Downing, and Downing vindicated that decision by bouncing into a double play, third to home to first.

Angel Notes

Reliever Bryan Harvey left the club to be with his father, Stan, who suffered a mild heart attack Thursday in North Carolina. A club spokesman said Harvey will get as much time off as necessary. Stan Harvey, 47, was in guarded condition Friday.

Manager Doug Rader said Harvey’s absence had some influence on his decision to activate Greg Minton off the 60-day disabled list Friday.

Minton arrived at County Stadium at 12:30 p.m. planning to run and pitch in a simulated game, not expecting to be activated. “I walk in and Doug says, ‘We’re not going to simulate you today. We’re going to stimulate you,’ ” Minton said.